tonight on "nightline," zombie invasion. the undead are everywhere, on big screens, small screens, from best sellers to video games. and zombies are more than the latest fad and fear. they are big business. the public face of a $7 billion halloween market. golden scammer. the irresistible lure of gold. for many investors, it's the last safe bet. but tonight, a criminal master mind tells us how gold scammers take investors for billions. he should know. he did it. and from casey to aruba. with a maryland woman missing, her secret boyfriend in jail, the latest secret in this tropical mystery including the lawyer who got casey anthony off the hook. and we are there.

>> announcer: from the global rell sources of abc news, with terry moran, cynthia mcfadden and bill weir in new york city, this is "nightline," october 28th, 2011. >> good evening, i'm bill weir. thanks for tuning in this friday. and finally, that rare and delightful moment is almost upon us when knocking on your neighbor's door covered in blood is encouraged. with candy. americans are expected to spend $7 billion on halloween and the hot costume this year? brain-snacking zombies. but by now, the undead invasion bigger than halloween, much, much bigger. here's abc's matt gutman. >> reporter: panic shoots through me. being devoured by a pack of zombies. ahh! that wimpy scream aside, fear not. these are all stunt zombies. stars of amc's hit show "the walking dead."

>> ahh! go, go! >> reporter: a human drama set during a zombie apocalypse. >> takes an hour and a half and we have black mouth rinse to stain their teeth. >> reporter: greg, coexecutive producer for "the walking dead" is arguably the origin of this most recent zombie contagion. >> people became really obsessed with the idea of the undead. i really believe it's just the fact that as people grow up, being fans of horror, there's something about zombies that are iconic. >> reporter: seems like the undead are creeping up on the vampires of "twilight." >> you want me to have every human experience. >> not to kill you. >> reporter: in the last decades, "resident evil" and the spoofy "zombie land kw" -- >> come here, big fella. >> zombies have brought in $5 billion.

and with the success of "the walking dead," 7 million people watched the show's premiere, there's now a potent whiff of the undead in the air. how many zombies have you created? >> so far? >> reporter: in your career? >> i think we're probably up to about 400 on season two so far. >> reporter: his professional life has been dedicated to transforming average looking people into an army of flash-feasting ghouls. >> i always feel like there's some violent about splattered and sprayed blood as opposed to a little bit of a drip. >> reporter: and come halloween, 2.6 million zombies will lurch towards your front door for candy. national retail federation is calling it the trendiest costume this year. everyone's doing it. so-called zombie walks have gone global. from dublin, ireland, to grand rapids, michigan. and should you ever be attack bid zombies, the cdc has a zombie apocalypse survival guide. really.

a 40-page illustrated novel, spelling out how to avoid getting eaten alive. note to self. buy a chain saw. yeah. and a bat. but life as a zombie tv star isn't all that exciting. on t"the walking dead" set, zombies spend a lot of time reading or flipping through iphones. eating is trickier. erin. it's hard not to look at your toout when i'm talking to you. >> it's okay. >> reporter: can i feel them? >> sure! >> reporter: ahh! for nick, the appeal is aesthetic. for others, it's more primal. >> the whole concept of the apocalyptic mind set, you think about animals you're pitted against. another human being? that's sbreging. >> reporter: sure, they prefer brains, but in "the walking dead," they will attack anything with a pulse. even a horse. >> i loaded it with fake guts and blood and they were like, let's go! just wait until the director says action.

and i went to frank, i said, you have about three seconds to roll camera before they tear that horse to pieces. >> reporter: so, to get a feel for that zombie excitement, nick gave his team an assignment to infect me. >> roll. >> reporter: lesson two. wardro wardrobe. baggy is good, right? >> right. you've been dead for awhile. i think you look pretty good. once the makeup is on, it will really solve the clothing. >> reporter: lesson three? makeup. oh, yeah. that will leave a mark. and no zombie is complete without those dead eyes. i can't see a thing. then, finally i'm led back to the guru of gore. >> reach your hand out to me. >> reporter: he says the fascination of horror is something that's inborn. >> you have two kinds of people that are growing up, you are either a hair brush singing into a mirror or there's a zombie

walk. >> reporter: turns out being a zombie is not innate to all of us. but one thing i could pull off -- i'm matt gutman for "nightline" in atlanta. >> looking good, matt gutman. thanks to you. and just ahead, elaborate schemes to steal from invest torps seeking the safety of gold. we check out how it works, from someone who knows. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] you've reached the age where you've learned a thing or two. this is the age of knowing what needs to be done. so, why would you let something like erectile dysfunction get in your way? isn't it time you talked to your doctor about viagra? 20 million men already have. with every age comes responsibility. ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex.

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>> announcer: "nightline" continues from new york city with bill weir. >> all currency is built on human trust. this mass agreement that bits of paper can be swapped for the fruit of a stranger's labor. faith that a dollar in the bank today will be there tomorrow. but when fear replaces faith, some start craving the historic safety of gold. never dreaming that there are conmen looking to exploit their urge for security. you're about to meet one, thanks to abc's brian ross. brian? >> reporter: bill, a federal judge next month will decide the prison sentence for a man who was in effect the bernie madoff of the gold scam racket. using the allure of gold to steal tens of millimeter milli dollars. before he goes to prison, he

decided to talk to "nightline" and reveal his tricks of the trade. how he chose his victims and tried to take them for all they were worth. the most promising victims were spotted through google earth. those with the fanciest homes and therefore the biggest bank accounts. persuaded to invest in gold and silver. >> order to purchase ten ounces of gold. >> purchase 60 ounces of gold. >> purchase 250 ounces of silver. >> reporter: but there were no orders. it was all a huge scam, pulled off by this man, who says for many, the allure of gold is almost irresistible. >> everyone wants to have gold in their drawer, under their bed. >> reporter: his name is jamie campany, and he took us back to the scene of the crime. a now 'em by boiler room, where for years his team cheated some 1,400 people across the country out of almost $30 million. >> these are where all the telemarketers would have been.

they would have been making the phone calls, probably 200 to 300 dials a day. >> reporter: now facing prison, came pabny has decided to come clean on "nightline" about what he did. the confessions of a gold scammer, guilty tears and all. >> these are people that didn't dese deserve who i brought into their lives. their families didn't deserve it. i'm ashamed. >> reporter: as depicted by hollywood, gold has been the ultimate symbol of status since the dawn of civilization. >> i love the field of gold. there's no other metal like it. >> reporter: and for today, gold rema remains the best investment. but it is the value of gold in a falling stock market that's driven so many americans to it. as the prices have skyrocketed, so have the scams. >> too many of the people

receiving gold or gold kind of commodities are not reputable and people should not deal with them. >> reporter: like jamie came panny's company, run out of this office building, global bullion exchange. as campany recalled to us, the phone pitches were designed to capital isz on fears about the stock market. >> come on. everybody knows what's going on in the markets today. are you living in a cave? you don't see what's happening with the price of the metals? wake up, john. this is an opportunity you can't pass up. >> reporter: it was once they were hooked that campany would scan google earth to see how much the marks might be good for. >> if they own a big mansion, we nor more than likely, we're looking at 100,000 mark. 200,000 or more. >> reporter: according to campany's records, the family that lived in this house was taken for $135,000. here, $212,000. there, $311,000.

the easiest marks, campany said, were always men who owned small to medium-sized businesses. so, you weren't targeting little old ladies at all. >> no, we weren't. quite frankly, little old ladies are a lot more astute and a lot more skeptical about making investments with people that they don't know. >> reporter: and campany taught his salespeople the tricks of the trade to get around the usual objections, which he shared with us. "i don't have the money." >> sure you do. you have a 401(k), you have a stock portfolio. you have dead dogs that are not performing. >> reporter: "i need to talk to my wife." >> look, you've been in business for years. how many times do you actually go to your wife and ask her if you're going to make an investment in your company? >> reporter: "i'm not comfortable doing business over the phone." >> at any time you're uncomfortable, we will get your money back. not a problem. >> reporter: but that almost never happened. despite fancy looking account

statements that they sent out to their clients there was no gold or silver in anyone's account. completely bogus. >> completely. >> reporter: the man who lived in this house in florida, dave, was one of the victims, receiving lots of those statements which reassured him, even when his account lost value. >> i did give them a considerable amount of money. republican it was a technique called flipping the script. >> you are looking to sell out at a time like this? are you kidding me? this is when the market's exploiting. you should be doubling up, tripling up on your positions. >> reporter: and that's just what dave did, until he finally stopped after losing $75,000. >> i thought, if i invested more, i would get the money back. >> reporter: he never will, nor will the other investors. by the time the scheme collapsed and this place was shut down, the money was long gone. >> i think about it every day. these people have to live with the pain that i caused them.

and some of them -- it's going to hurt them for the rest of their lives. hopefully this is one way i can stop it from happening to anybody else. >> reporter: campany faces a sentence of up to 25 years. and he says he hopes by coming clean here tonight he can prove to the judge that he deserves less. his best advice is simple. don't buy gold or really anything from somebody on the phone who you don't know. and if you do buy gold, make sure there really is gold involved, gold to back it up, not just some statement printed on a fancy looking piece of paper. simple advice, but all too often ignored. big? >> brian, thanks. and we'll be right back. on car insurance? save moy no problem. you want to save money on rv insurance? no problem. you want to save money on motorcycle insurance? no problem. you want to find a place to park all these things? fuggedaboud it. this is new york.

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a new development now in the case of a maryland woman missing in the caribbean vacation island of aruba.

a judge there today ordered that her traveling companion, gary giordano, be held in jail an additional 30 days. meanwhile, giordano has gained an ally you might recognize. here's abc's john quinones. >> reporter: jose baez. he may be the most notorious defense attorney in the country. but these days, he's been spending a lot of time down on the shores of aruba. searching for justice in the disappearance of robyn gardner, last seen on this beach on august 2 nd. >> they entered into the water over there. >> reporter: baez is representing gary giordano, the man who accompanied robyn on their vacation getaway. >> it's unfortunate what's happening to him.angers me. >> reporter: there have been no charges filed against him, but for nearly three months now, giordano has been detained in this prison by the sea in connection with the case. >> they were swimming.

he noticed the currents got rough and both started to swim back to shore. he turned around and she was gone. >> reporter: why not swim back to get her? >> he, from what i understand, they swam a long way back, so -- he was at the point of exhaustion. absolutely no evidence of a crime. zero. >> reporter: no body. no weapons. no motive. >> reporter: n >> no, no, no apparent reason other than an accident. >> reporter: she shows as much confidence in his new client as he did in casey anthony. >> we the jury find the defendant not guilty. >> reporter: critics were on you. you were a novice. you were lucky, it was dumb luck. >> excuses they search for to figure out why they were wrong. ♪ >> reporter: if baez can't resist taking on hard luck cases, the long shots, it may be because he identifies with them. >> i grew up eating --

everything was with rice and beans. >> reporter: he came seemingly out of nowhere himself. born in new york and raised by a single mom in the bronx and then on the tough streecht streets havana, miami. >> this was my first house. i went to this school here. >> reporter: he dropped out of high school and got married at 17. >> my girlfriend got pregnant and i thought that growing up without a father was something that i had gone through, it's not something that i wanted my child to have to go through. >> reporter: determined to do right, baez earned his g.e.d., joined the navy, went to college and then onto law school. still, he struggled. you had some real trouble early on. you were accused of being a deadbeat dad, not paying back student loans, bouncing checks. >> that's mostly the media that's called me those things. >> reporter: but it made it difficult for you to try to get

licensed as a lawyer. the state bar would. license you for eight years. >> it built a lot of my character. i know what it's like to be wrongly accused of something. and i took that to heart. >> reporter: you seem to be attracted to difficult cases. >> i look at each case as a challenge. you can't do this with passion if you don't have a sincere desire to help people. maybe the underdog type client is what i'm attracted to or is attracted to me. i don't know. >> reporter: there's been no welcome party for jose baez here in aruba. this is an island that depends on tourism. in fact, baez is convinced that giordano is being detained because of what he calls the embarrassment of the natalee holloway case. >> wh what do you think that's about? even as we walked along the beach, a police helicopter circled overhead and police dogs were searching nearby.

>> i think it's incompetent for dogs to be searching two-plus months after the fact. whatever scent they expected to find is long gone. >> reporter: to those who might say, there he goes again, grabbing another high profile case, just wanting to be, stay in the spotlight. what would you tell them? >> i'm a lawyer. and this is a case that i was called. it's not something that you go looking for. if no cameras came around tomorrow, i would still be involved with gary's case. this is an opportunity that i should take full and complete advantage of and try and do some good with it. >> reporter: john quinones in aruba tonight. thanks to him. and finally a party in the show me state tonight, because the st. louis cardinals beat the texas rangers 6-2 in game seven of the world series. their comeback last night in game six, one for the ages, and david freese will never have to buy a drin income his hometown again after that home run. it sticks in the throat of a brewer's fan, but